Improvement in brick and mortar elevators



UNITED STATES PATENT OrricE,

JAMES MCNAMARA, OF BUFFALO, NEWY YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN BRICK AND MORTAR ELEVATORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 44,544, dated October 4, 1864.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES MCNAMARA, of Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented a new and `useful Improvement in Hoisting Apparatus or Masons Elevators for Brick and Mortar; and I hereby declare that the following is a true and exact description thereof, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure l is a side elevation of my improved machine applied to a building in process of erection. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical section across the box or receptacle K of the brick and mortar and a portion of one of t-heendless ropes. 'Fig 4 is a perspective view showing more clearly the hook I) for connecting with the rope G.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in all of the figures.

My invention is designed to dispense with the labor of the tenders or hod-carriers, who supply brick and mortar to masons in erecting walls by climbing on ladders with the loaded hods upon their shoulders. I provide a wooden frame, A, consisting of four upright timbers framed into transverse pieces at top and bottom and braced diagonally in both directions to secure the requisite strength. At or near the top of the frame a strong shaft, B, is provided with a gear-wheel, C, and two grooved pulleys, F F, placed about a foot and a half apart, and rigidly attached to the shaft. Immediately below Bis a similar shaft having a small pinion, D, which gears with the wheel O, on the ends of which are provided cranks E E, by which it is turned. Endless ropes or chains G G extend around the pulleys F F, of a length sufficient to reach therefrom to the ground or foundation of the building, where they pass around a similar pair of pulleys, F F, arranged, like the iirst, on one shaft which has its bearings in the frame H. This frame does not rest on the ground, but hangs snspended in the ropes G G; and in order to keep them taut when at work a plank or lever, I, is laid with one end resting on the door or ground and the other on the cross-member ofthe frame, on which weights a may be placed sufficient to keep the ropes taut and steady. The weight may be applied directly to the lower frame or in other ways, but I prefer the method described, as it admits of adjusting and altering the weight with the greatest ease, and likewise serves to prevent the frame from swinging from the contact of one end of the plank I with the floor. The boxes K, in which the brick and mortar are placed to be raised, may be square or rectangular, and should at least have one vertical side to come in contact with the ropes G G. On the upper edge of this side two hooks, b b, are provided at such a distance apart as to correspond with that of the two ropes. The points of the hooks terminate in the same direction, and are situated nearly or quite over the outer angle of t-he edge of the box and parallel with it, as sh own more clearly in Fig. 4. These boxes are attached to and detached from the ropes G Gwhen either loaded or empty, as the case may require, by simply connecting the hooks b b therewith, which is done by moving the box endwise, when it touches the ropes sufficiently to engage the hooks with them. To do so with greater case, the top of the box should be inclined a little toward the ropes to give more space within the hooks. When the hooks are in connection, the weight of the box, resting against the sides of the ropes, bends or kinks them at the hook, as shown at c, Fig. 3, so that it cannot slip. The greater the weight of the load thus attached the more firmly do the hooks clinch and adhere to the ropes. Vh en the boxes are elevated, they can be detached with ease by turning them until the ropes bec-omc straight, when the hooks slip off from them. Motion is given to the upper pulleys by turning the cranks E, and the ropes are contiiiually and steadily carried around them` the loaded boxes being attached on the side which is ascending and the empty ones returned to the ground,to

be filled again 'by connecting with the other side, the relative direction of their motion being indicated on the drawings by the erect and inverted arrows. The boxes may be attached to or detached from the ropes at any part thereof and in any number required without stopping the motion at all. The groove in the pulleys must be V-shaped, so that the ropes will bind and not slip. A ratchet and pawl or brake may be used to prevent the motion reversing, if it should he necessary to stop while loaded.

The apparatus is light and portable, and

may easily be shifted from one story to another as the height of the Walls increases, the lower suspended frame, H,=-in such cases being lel't in its position-on or near the ground, and the endless ropes G G increased in length to adapt them to the increased elevation. It is also capable of being removed with great facility from one part ofthe building to another, the parts, when separated, being easily moved by han'd. Itis simple and inexpensivaand with two attendautswill do the work of a score of laborers who raise brick and mortar in the ordinary manner.

NVhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The combination of the pulleys F F, endless ropes G G, and lower pulleys, F F', 'suspended in frame H, with the removable boxes K K and crank and pinion gearing D C, or its equivalent, arranged and operating substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

. 2. In combination with the endless ropes G- G and receptacles K K, the hooks b b, constructed substantially as described, and operating as and for the purposes set forth.

3. In combination with the grooved pulleys F F F F and endless ropes G G, lthe suspension-pulley frame H, leverp1atform I, and weight a, or its equivalent, whereby the ropes G G are made self-adjusting to a vertical position and retained therein, substantially as shown and described.

In Witness whereof` I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES MCNAMARA.

Vitnesses:

J FRASER. GEO. W. MIATT. 

